Daniel Rayson

Plan B analysis

These are all images of the artist and Mercury Music prize nominee Plan B, I think these three images in one pretty much sum up Plan B’s star persona. He is an east London council estate lad, whom has grown up to break out of his social class and achieve fame in his own right. He sticks to his roots very strongly though which is part of what sells him so strongly, especially to other like him growing up in underprivileged areas and on the ‘poor’ side of the social divide. This dedication to his roots can be seen in one of his latest songs “Ill Manors”.

The song starts out with with a flow of string based instruments but then drops in words with a heavy bombardment of strong disagreement of social morals and standards and then carries on stinging. With a strong distaste for society, "Ill Manors" is a harshly articulate bellow of underclass rage. Starting with a typical British street holler, the song is a rallying-cry for class war: "Oi! I said, Oi! What you looking at you little rich boy? We're poor round here, Run home and lock your door, don’t come round here no more, you could get robbed for real, you know my manor's ill." The song is a truthful artistic attack upon the wealthier class, this part of him is what sells him to those who can relate to him, yet at the same time can also appeal to those whom are a part of the wealthier class.

Plan B has proven to be very adaptable to fit into the star persona he needs to appeal to his audience. Although he'd started out as an R&B singer, he decided to rap on his first album, “Who Needs Action When You Got Words”. It didn’t do as well as he'd hoped, so he switched and invented a Soul Man persona for a cinematic concept album, “The Defamation of Strickland Banks”. The success of this new album meant that Plan B was presented with the opportunity to change back to rap and hip-hop and give it a second shot, to which he has been very successful and has now launched his career into films further more building his star persona.

Overall Plan B’s star persona shows him as a man that has not forgotten where he has come from, he respects his upbringing and is proud of it. He is willing to stand up for people like him whom cannot voice their opinions. He is now branching out into films such as his star role in ‘The Sweeney’, which will make him appeal to alot more people as those who may not particularity like his talent in music may enjoy his acting.